Investigation of the corrosion behavior of 304L and 316L stainless steels at high-temperature borated and lithiated water

The effects of temperature and dissolved oxygen on the electrochemical behavior and the oxide film formation of grades 304L and 316L stainless steels at high-temperature borated and lithiated water were investigated by means of potentiodynamic polarization, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results revealed that increasing the solution temperature degrades the passivity of the oxide films formed on both grades of steel and shifts their corrosion potential toward more negative potentials. The oxide films formed on the steel samples immersed into the solution containing 20 ppb dissolved oxygen (DO) showed a duplex structure, in which the inner layer was mostly a composition of Cr oxides and the outer layer mainly was a Fe oxide and Ni-Fe spinel. Only a single layer of Cr-rich oxide was observed in the oxide films formed in the solutions with the DO concentrations higher than 20 ppb. Higher amount of Cr in the oxide films formed on the type 316L compared to 304L improves the passivity of the oxide film of this grade of steel and results in a wider passive region in its potentiodynamic polarization curves.